1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a liquid crystal display device and a vehicle measuring instrument.
2. Description of the Related Art
A structure for a liquid crystal display device mounted on a vehicle measuring instrument is known in which the liquid crystal display device uses a light source for the vehicle measuring instrument as its light source without adding a dedicated one. As an example of the structure described above, Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2013-101049 discloses a vehicle measuring instrument that includes a liquid crystal display panel (liquid crystal display device) disposed in front of a shaft connecting portion of a indicating needle main body fixed on an end of a indicating needle drive shaft that guides illuminating light from a indicating needle illuminating light source. This vehicle measuring instrument includes an illuminating light dividing and outputting portion that is provided on the front end of the shaft connecting portion and outputs a part of the illuminating light received from the indicating needle drive shaft to the liquid crystal display panel, and a luminance adjusting portion that distributes the illuminating light output from the illuminating light dividing and outputting portion to the entire area of the back surface of the liquid crystal display panel. With this configuration, the vehicle measuring instrument can adjust luminance of the liquid crystal display panel by using a part of the illuminating light emitted from the indicating needle illuminating light source.
However, in some cases, the vehicle measuring instrument disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2013-101049 fails to uniformly illuminate the liquid crystal display device to which illuminating light is distributed from the indicating needle illuminating light source. Thus, there is much room for improvement with respect to uniformity of luminance of the liquid crystal display device.